ASTARTA
Real Name: Astarta
Identity/Class: Human mutate, citizen of Mu (Pre-Cataclysmic Era to Hyborian Era); magic user
Occupation: Pretend goddess, prisoner;
formerly princess
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Conan, Bêlit
Enemies: Akkheba and the previous priests of Kelka
Known Relatives: Sea-God (husband)
Aliases: Ashtoreth, Goddess of love and death (on the cover)
Base of Operations:
Kelka, an island in the Western Sea, west of the Barachan Islands (Hyborian
Era);
previously Mu (Pre-Cataclysmic
Era);
First Appearance: Conan the Barbarian I#71 (February, 1977)
Powers/Abilities: Astarta was immortal in the sense that she did not age, but she could die if killed, and could bleed if wounded. The only enchantment she could cast was the call of the Sea-God.
History:
(Conan the Barbarian I#71 (fb)) - In the Atlantean Era, Astarta was a young and beautiful princess of a coastal realm in the land of Mu. Her people and her father, the king, worshiped a Sea-God whose name had long been forgotten. Astarta was ordered to become the Sea-God's wife. On the night of the wedding, floating on the sea, Astarta encountered a manifestation of the Sea-God who changed her. She was granted life everlasting. At dawn she returned back home.
As the years passed, she always remained young while her friends aged and died.
And then came the Great Cataclysm. When unbelievable earthquakes tore the world apart, the Sea-God shook his foaming mane, and the coastal cities of the realm crumbled and were engulfed by the waves. However, the god spared Astarta. Lulled by the waves, she was taken to an island, Kelka, where the descendants of the Thurian continent began worshiping her, believing that she was Ashtoreth, having misunderstood her name. But the priests feared Astarte, who they felt could become a danger for her power, so they imprisoned her in a tower. Astarta tried to invoke her husband, because sometimes she could hear his voice roaring in the quiet nights, but the priests' magic blocked her voice.
(Conan the Barbarian I#71 (fb) / Conan the Barbarian I#70 - BTS) - As millennia passed in Kelka, the Kelkans, initially a civilized people, became more and more savage. Ashtoreth was still worshiped, but Astarta was caged and tortured.
(Conan the Barbarian I#71) - One day, the Cimmerian, Conan, and a Shemite, Bêlit, found her in her cell and she told them her story. Afterward, she saw Barachans assaulting the town and the Kelkans trying to fight back. She also saw Bêlit kill Akkheba, the priest who had tortured her. Her voice now free, Astarta called her husband and the ocean rose. Gigantic waves started flooding and beating the city walls. The Barachans and other prisoners of the Kelkans succeeded in fleeing. Instead, Kelka and its people were submerged by the Sea-God's fury. Astarta was finally joined with her husband.
Comments: Created by Roy Thomas (writer), John Buscema (pencils) and Ernie Chan (inks). Story adapted from "Marchers of Valhalla" by Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan.
Profile by Spidermay.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Astarta/Ashtoreth has no known connections to
The Sea-God has no known connections to:
The Sea-God was worshiped by the people of Mu at the time when Atlantis showed its gleaming cities and even before that. One of the Sea-God's manifestation was a column of water. Its power extended over the seas, and he could govern them at will, submerging coastal lands and islands, generating gigantic waves and so on. The god spoke through the roar of his waves, and men could hear him, usually with fear. Being a god, he probably had wider, unknown powers. One of these was the possibility to grant life everlasting. His life, too, was everlasting.
(Conan the Barbarian I#71 (fb) ) - The Sea-God married Astarta by night and, after the bridal night, he apparently forgot about his spouse.
But, when the Great Cataclysm shattered the world and sunk Atlantis, the Sea-God, too, shook his mane, submerging the coastal cities of his queen's realm. He did remember his wife and saved her, taking her to the distant civilized island of Kelka. Millennia passed and the Sea-God's roar always spoke through the waves, sometimes heard by Astarta.
(Conan the Barbarian I#70 - BTS) - The Sea-God roared and a man heard his roar, Kawaku. Storms and waves were the Sea-God's voice, and Kawaku heard about his own death, the toll for sailing so far from land with his companions of the Tigress.
(Conan the Barbarian I#71 - BTS) - The day after, the Sea-God heard Astarta's voice in the dawn, finally piercing sorcery cast against her being heard. Eager to be heard, waves rose and hammered Kelka's walls, the sea roared in anger, and in few minutes engulfed the towers and the island which had made his lover suffer. Astarta was finally in her husband's embrace.
--Conan the Barbarian I#71 (Conan the Barbarian I#70 - BTS, Conan the Barbarian I#71 (fb)
images:
(without ads)
Conan
the Barbarian I#71, p11, pan1
(Astarta, main image)
Conan the Barbarian I#71, p12, pan1 (Ashtoreth, head shot)
Conan the Barbarian I#71, p11, pan1 (Sea-God)
Appearances:
Conan the Barbarian I#71 (February, 1977) - Roy Thomas (writer/editor), John Buscema (pencils), Ernie Chan (inks)
Last updated: 02/14/13
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™
and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If
you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com